Abstract

The modified gravity model is a nonlinear regression model for estimating passenger correspondences between pairs of spatial points [Andronov and Santalova, Simul. Comput. 41(2), 730–745 (2012)]. Unknown parameters of the model and correspondences are estimated using aggregated data, i.e. total number of passenger departures at each point in a considered time interval. The model estimation under the assumption that the error term is distributed normally is carried out in [Andronov and Santalova, Simul. Comput. 41(2), 730–745 (2012); Santalova, Autom. Control Comput. Sci. 47(2), 99–106 (2013)]. However non-symmetry of the passenger flows may violate the assumption about normality of error distribution. In the present research the model with normally distributed errors is generalized to a model with skew-normal error distribution, and a method of its estimation is proposed.